The U.S. State Department's country reports for last year is heartening the founder of a nonprofit group that advocates for the Uyghur minority targeted for genocide by the Chinese Communist Party.
The State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights for 2022 zeroed in on China's "genocide and crimes against humanity" against Uyghurs and other Turkic groups in East Turkistan, including millions in detention, forced labor and restrictions on their religious and cultural practices.
The report also highlighted the case of Gulshan Abbas, retired physician and sister of Campaign for Uyghurs founder and executive director Rushan Abbas, who has suffered "enforced disappearance" by the Chinese regime since September 2018.
"I am heartened to see that the U.S. State Department has included the name of my missing sister, Gulshan, in its latest report on China’s human rights abuses," Rushan Abbas said in a Campaign for Uyghurs news release issued March 21. "This recognition is not only important for me and my family, but also for the countless other Uyghur families who have been torn apart by the Chinese regime’s oppressive policies."
Campaign for Uyghurs applauded the State Department for its report.
"We will continue to fight for justice and accountability, and I urge the international community to join us in demanding an end to the atrocities being committed against my people by the genocidal Chinese regime," Rushan Abbas said.
Gulshan Abbas was sentenced to 20 years in prison without trial "as a retaliatory act against Rushan Abbas’ activism and advocacy" and she also has suffered transnational repression and "broader atrocities" under China's genocide against Uyghurs and Turkic peoples, the news release said.
Gulshan Abbas is imprisoned in a reeducation camp "in relation to her ethnoreligious identity," according to information provided on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's website.
Amnesty International reports that Gulshan Abbas has had no access to family members for more than two years, which "raises serious concerns for her health and wellbeing."
The State Department report referred to the People's Republic of China as an authoritarian regime led by the Chinese Communist Party, whose members hold almost all top government and security apparatus positions. The Communist Party Central Committee's 24-member Politburo and its seven-member Standing Committee hold ultimate authority and Chinese President Xi Jinping holds the three most powerful positions in the party. Chinese security groups have committed serious and pervasive abuses against ethnic and religious minority groups.
"Genocide and crimes against humanity" have been committed mainly against the Muslim minority Uyghurs, the report said.
Human rights violations and crimes include "the arbitrary imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians; forced sterilization, coerced abortions and more restrictive application of the country’s birth control policies; rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence; torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained; and persecution including forced labor and draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression and freedom of movement," the report said.
Campaign For Uyghurs Program Director Arslan Hidayat met with camp survivors Qelbinur Sidik and Gulbahar Haitiwaji, who provided testimony during the "Voices from Camp Survivors: Illuminating the Realities of #UyghurGenocide" event on March 22. The following day, witnesses and human rights activists testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Campaign For Uyghurs regularly urges the international community to take actions such as targeted sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for buses, and pressuring the China's regime to end human rights violations. Campaign For Uyghurs also urges corporations and other private stakeholders to conduct thorough human rights due diligence and address any abuses identified in their supply chains.
